I don't care if a portal exists to reach the place, all I care is that it "exists" on a general map. The only reason I didn't like Tol Barad was because it "existed" off in it's own world, so you couldn't even fly there, despite the fact it's only supposed to be shortly off the coast of northern EK. I know they did that for PVP reasons after the mess that was Wintergrasp, but it really hurt the feeling of cohesion.

There is nothing wrong with portals and I hope they stay. I bet the majority of people who take flight paths don't stare at their computer screen in wonder at everything they are flying over. Personally, I start flying then either tab out or get up and do something else for the few minutes it takes to reach the destination.

This word lazy gets spouted a lot these days. Tell me, what exactly is wrong with wanting to be lazy & avoid the boring parts of a game you play for fun. Honestly I think people forget games are suppose to be enjoyable sometimes.

I'm not so sure if it's lazy, but to me it just ruins the atmosphere. Take ICC for example. The portals just made it feel like four pieces of a castle stringed together as opposed to one huge continuous raid. Sometimes they're are necessary, but I feel that they can easily be overdone.

You can fly (or swim) straight to the Isle of Giants, that's not a problem but Thunder Isle is still blocked off by fog and invisible walls and doesn't appear to be where the map suggests it should be.

You can see in the distance an island but that appears to be the same old 'placeholder' island which has been there for months. I do believe that the true Thunder Isle is in fact instanced, which IS a shame - there's no reason for it.

They should do what Rift does: no flying of any kind, instantaneous portals to get from town to town... but you have to pay to use the portals.

BTW, has anyone noticed odd behavior when you minimize a window while you're flying? It seems the objects at your destination don't materialize until a few seconds after you reexpand the window. I've had this happen many times flying to the lodge in Grizzly Hills; the character falls through the deck where the FP is located before the deck materializes (this is not fatal since you just fall a short distance to the ground under the deck.)

This behavior started around 4.0, so it was probably part of the client changes for Cataclysm.

Last edited by Osmeric; 2013-01-10 at 05:03 PM.

"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"Almost every time I have gotten to know a critic personally, they keep up with the criticism but lose the venom." -- Ghostcrawler
I hate these casual Fridays ruining it for real Fridays.

I'm not so sure if it's lazy, but to me it just ruins the atmosphere. Take ICC for example. The portals just made it feel like four pieces of a castle stringed together as opposed to one huge continuous raid. Sometimes they're are necessary, but I feel that they can easily be overdone.

Two words: corpse runs. Like all these things they seem nice, but when you think about the practicality of doing it 1000 times it starts to get annoying pretty fast.

Two expansions ago OP would have been singing the diametrically opposite tune.

"I'm sick of waiting for our elusive warlock to sign on just so he can make a summoning portal to get to the isle. Some BS about making sure his baby was 'fed' or 'wasn't throat deep in his own excrement.' I dunno, I wasn't really paying attention. Make this easier for us, Blizzard! Sick of waiting around for people when I'm ready to go!"

Or waiting for half of your late 25M raiders to shuffle their way over.

Portals are a convenience. As long as it exists in the real world, on the map, you can feel free to fly to it if you care that much. Me, I'll take a portal.

there is a HUGE difference between taking a portal to an island, and taking a portal to each individual boss in a raid. i just wanted to add that. since people are confusing the two. its nice to get to the action faster, but once im there let me make my own way from spot to spot, or boss to boss. having a portal from the mainland to an island 20 mins away, is a convenience, while a portal after every single boss inside an already tiny raid.. is just bad design.

Originally Posted by ablib

I do realize that this is an internet forum full of morons, however in real life, no one questions me, people look to me for the answer, look up to me, trust me. To have dipshits on a video game forum question me, is insulting.

Not really with patched in zones like these, but I find it very dull intercontinental transit is handled with a portal. Jumping on the zep to Borean Tundra/Howling Fjord activated a nordic piece of music and when you arrived to Northrend you could admire the world while the zep still made its way to the docks.

That's all good and well the first time. And maybe even the third or fourth. But every raid day for the 4-5 months that this content is relevant would get very old.

there is a HUGE difference between taking a portal to an island, and taking a portal to each individual boss in a raid. i just wanted to add that. since people are confusing the two. its nice to get to the action faster, but once im there let me make my own way from spot to spot, or boss to boss. having a portal from the mainland to an island 20 mins away, is a convenience, while a portal after every single boss inside an already tiny raid.. is just bad design.

I can agree with you on this point, thanks for elaborating. Trash mobs are there for a reason, no matter how monotonous they might seem.